Elevator apparatus



P 1934- r A. K. TYLEE ELEVATOR APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 26, 1931 P 1934- A. K. TYLEE ELEVATOR APPARATUS Filed Aug. 26, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 wvwv,

Patented Sept. 4, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE My invention relates to door mechanisms for elevator apparatus of that class wherein. an; elevator landing door or gate at a landing is automatically opened when the car of the elevator is at said landing and automatically closed before the car is started to move to another landing- My invention has for its object to provide an improved door mechanism of the character described.

Apartment houses and other buildings, have heretofore been provided with electrically operated elevator apparatus including a system. of push-buttons by means of which the car was controlled by the passengers, and it has heretofore been customary to construct the car of an elevator apparatus of this type with; a sliding door which was automatically opened upon. arrival of the car at its destination and which was automatically closed. invention may be; and:

preferably is, embodiedin an elevator apparatus constructed and operating in: this fashion.

Also, it has, heretofore been. customary to provide the elevator landing doorway wit-h a sliding.

door which was directly engaged bythe car door i so as tobe opened. and closedby and with the latter, the movement of the car into position at a: landing serving. to couple the two doors so that they were simultaneously opened and closed by the same door operating means, the latter usu-- ally comprising. an automatically controlled electric motor mounted: on the car and connected; with the sliding door of the; latter.

In carrying out my invention. 1- provide a. door or gate at the landing which; is pivotally sup- I ported as by hinges to swing laterally into and out of its closed position, and. means is provided through which the operation of an: element or. member that is movably mounted upon the car ofv the apparatus, preferably the-door of the car, occasions aswingingv opening movement of; the pivoted well dooror gate when said element-ormember is shifted (however motivated) on. the; car in one direction while the car is positioned at said landing, and through which said member or element occasions a. swinging, closing movement of said landing door or gate when saidelement or member is shifted onthecar-in. the opposite direction. v

In the best form of my invention the hingedly 7 supported landing door orgate can alsobe tilted laterally toward and from: the" well; thereby to shift its center of gravity so that it isopened and closedby gravity instead of'by power transmittedto it from the cardoor as has heretofore beenthe case. q VI It is also a feature of my invention, in its best form, that while the landing door or gate is opened and/or'closed independently by gravity,

it maybe tilted inone direction to occasion an opening movement thereof by the car door when the latter ismoved intoits open position, and in the opposite direction to occasion a closing movement thereof by the car door when the latter is moved into its closed position.

Thus, if the car door is automatically controlled and operated as described above, or manually operated, its opening and closing movements will occasion, and be accompanied by, the automatic operation ofthe landing door.

Gther features of my invention are hereinafter pointed out.

In-the accompanying drawings: I

Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of an elevator well showing also a portion of an elevatorcar disposedtherein.

. Figure 2: is. a sectional detail hereinafter described;

Figure 3 isa sectionon line 3-3 of Fig. 1, but with the landing door 49; hereinafter described,

removed.

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic view including a portion of the slidingv car door, the door operating electric motor, and a portion of the circuit of the latter.

Figure 5 is a sectionon line 55 of Fig. 3;

' Figure 61s a section on line 66 of Fig. 3.

Figure 7 is a section on line 7-7 of- Fig. 3-. Figure 8 isa section on line-8-8 of Fig. 3. Figure 9- is a section online 99 of Fig. 3. In the accompanying drawings, 10 indicates a shaft or well and 11, 12 and 13 three of the walls thereof. Within this well 10 is disposed an elevator car 14 that is movable vertically on ways or guide rails provided upon'the opposite side walls 11 and. 13, one of said ways or rails being shown at 15'.

Journaled in bearings provided on the top of the frame of car 14 is a shaft 16 having fixed thereon a depending arm 1'7 whose lower end is piyotally connected with one end of a rack bar 18 that is supported or held in mesh with a pinion..l9 by a yoke member 20.. The yoke member 20 is pivotally hung upon the armature shaft '01:.

an electric motor 21 and the pinion 19 is fixedly ably mounted upon; the car 14 and controlling 1w If the door 49, when in its fully open position, is perpendicular with respect to the wall 12 as shown in Fig. 2, it is desirable to provide means to give an initial closing impulse to the door to start it upon its swing toward well 10...As' herein shown this means may include a bracket 56 fastened to the inner flange of side bar 39 near the lower end thereof, to which bracket is pivotally connected one end of a piston rod 5'7 provided at its opposite end with a piston 58 arranged within a cylinder 59.

This cylinder 59 has one end thereof pivotally connected at 60 with a bracket 61 fastened to one side of the door 49 near the bottom of the latter.

Within the cylinder 59 is arranged a coiled spring 62, one end of which co-operates with the piston 58 and the opposite end of which bears against one end of the cylinder 59.

In Fig. 2 the parts are shown in the positions they occupy while the upper portion of doorsupporting member 42 is held tilted outwardly by the cam 55. With the parts in these positions the spring 62 is under little or no compression and therefore the door 49 is held by gravity in its fully open position.

When the door 24 of the car is closed and cam plate 55 is moved out of engagement with the slide-bar 53, the spring 50 tilts the upper portion of member 42 and door 49 inwardly toward the well 10, the lower portions of said member and door being moved outwardly away from well 10 because of the fact that the member 42 is pivotally supported at its middle by the stud 44.

When the lower end portions of member 42 and door 49 are thus moved outwardly away from well 10 and relatively to side-bar 39 and bracket 56, Fig. 2, the cylinder 59 moves with the door 49 and the spring 62 thereby is compressed and acts through the cylinder 59 to start the door 49 on its swing toward closed position. The spring 62 need impart but slight movement to the door 49 after which gravity carries the door into its fully closed position against the abutment strip 51.

It is customary, in semi-automatic elevator apparatus including push-button control mechanism, to provide a latch by which the landing door is held in its closed position but which is automatically operated to free said door when the car stops at a landing and its door 24 is open. In Fig. 1 of the drawings I have indicated by dotted lines at 63 a latch of the kind referred to which is normally held by a spring, not shown, in position to lock the door 49 in its closed position. This latch 63 is connected by means of a bell crank lever 6-1 with a slide-bar 65 carrying a truck or roll 66 to co-operate with a device 67 that is carried by the counterweight 33. When the door 24 is opened upon arrival of the car 14 at a landing where said car is stopped the counterweight 33 is raised as above described and the device 67 is operated to act through the slide-bar 65 and bell crank 64 to retract the latch 63 and free the door 49. This unlatohing of the door 49 may occur as the door 2 nears the limit of its opening movement. The only difierence between this latch mechanism for the door 49 and mechanisms for this purpose as heretofore provided is that the latch member or bolt 53 is in the same horizontal plane with the pivotal stud 44. Otherwise this mechanism constructed and operated by the counterweight 33 as usual.

The mechanism for operating the car 14 and by which it is raised and lowered within the well or shaft 10 is omitted from the drawings, but is as usual and as usual is controlled by the pushbutton system of the: apparatus. I

It is to be understood, however, that while I have herein described the car as controlled by means of push-buttons, the car 14 may be controlled and operated through any suitable mechanism; i

What I claim is:

1. In an elevator apparatus, the combination with a car provided with a door that occupies a closed position while said car is in motion and which is opened when said car is at a landing, of a well provided with a doorway at said landing; a movably supported door for said doorway, and means through which said car door when opened while the car is at said landing adjusts said movably supported landing door thereby to cause the latter to be opened by gravity and through which said car door when closed while said car is at said landing adjusts said landing door thereby to cause the latter to be closed by gravity.

2. In an elevator apparatus, the combination with a car provided with a door that occupies a closed position while said car is in motion and which is opened when said car is at a landing, of a well provided with a doorway at said landing; a door for said doorway; a movably supported. hinge connected with and supporting said last mentioned door, and means through which said car door when opened while the car is at said landing acts to adjust said hinge so that said landing door is opened by gravity and through which said car door when closed while said car is at said landing acts to adjust said hinge to cause said landing door to be closed by gravity.

3. In an elevator apparatus, an elevator well provided with a landing and having a doorway at said landing; a door-supporting member movably mounted within said doorway at one side of the latter; a door for said doorway hingedly connected with said door-supporting member, and. means adapted to be operated by the door of a car to adjust said door-supporting member thereby to tilt said door so that it is opened by gravity when the car door is opened and is closed by 2.0 gravity when the car door is closed.

4. In an elevator apparatus, an elevator well provided with a landing and having a doorway at said landing; a pivotally supported door-supporting member adjacent one side of said doorway; a door for said doorway hingedly connected with said door-supporting member; a spring for tilting said door-supporting member and its door in one direction to cause said door to be closed by gravity, and means through which the door 13 of a car when opened while said car is at said landing acts to tilt said door-supporting member and its door in the opposite direction to cause said tilted door to be opened by gravity.

5. In an elevator apparatus, the combination with a car having a door and a cam on said door, of an elevator well provided with a landing and having a doorway at said landing; a pivotally supported door-supporting member adjacent one side of said doorway; a door for said doorway hingedly connected with said door-supporting member; a spring for tilting said door-supporting member and its door in one direction to cause said door to be closed by gravity, and means through which said cam acts to tilt said doorsupporting member and its door in the opposite direction when said car door is opened thereby to cause said tilted door to be opened by gravity.

6. An elevator apparatus constructed in accordance with claim 2 wherein there is also procause said landing door to be closed by gravity, said means comprising a normally inert spring that is stressed when said hinge is adjusted to eiTeot the closing of the door that is supported by it.

. ARTHUR K. TYLEE. 

